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I find that hard to believe that Omaha wants to separate from old rivals. What would they gain in the Summit? They would be the outlier in that league... yes, you would be able to go to cities that are as big as, if not bigger then, Omaha itself.

They've spent the last 7 years trying to rebrand the athletic department and become and established D1 school, the last thing they want is to be in a conference with opponents from pre-D1 days.

Omaha is looking at the Horizon or the Valley, but it's more likely the Horizon makes an offer of the two conferences.

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I want to say UNO made a play for Valley membership when they added Valpo.

You would be correct. I interned for a Valley school back during that time and had some people mentoring me close to the situation. Omaha, Milwaukee, Murray State, Valpo, hell even Grand Canyon were potential candidates

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Per The Oregonian, Pac 12 may sell a 10% stake in the conference's broadcast rights, sponsorship rights, merchandising and all other commercial assets for $500M to private equity.

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The “Pac-12 NewCo” plan was introduced to the conference presidents and chancellors at their mid-November meeting and was subsequently discussed in a conference call in December, per sources. Private investors would own 10 percent equity in the newly formed entity in exchange for a $500 million investment.

A six-page document obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive outlines the plan presented by conference commissioner Larry Scott to his bosses during the November meeting of the “Pac-12 CEO Group.”

The document outlines the conference’s current lagging media rights projections and introduces an ambitious plan that involves taking on a strategic private investor.

The conference’s broadcast rights, sponsorship rights, merchandising and all other commercial assets would be consolidated under the umbrella of “Pac-12 NewCo.” The conference would retain 90 percent of the equity.

The strategic plan documents include a chart outlining the current and projected media-rights distributions. It reads, “based on the Pac-12’s current media rights deals and making conservative assumptions going forward, we estimate that a Capitalized NewCo could be valued at approximately $5 billion to $8.5 billion.”

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Dixie State to the WAC in 2020. Oddly enough, this place exists in Southern Utah, not say Alabama or Georgia, etc.

Utah's "Dixie" is an interesting thing.

It is, of course, in the southern part of Utah, but additionally many of its settlers were from the south. One of its first settlers had been a slave overseer and slave owner from North Carolina and Mississippi, and cotton, tobacco and other semi-tropical plants common to the South grew well there (all of this was prior to the Civil War, and well before Utah statehood). So the nickname of the area became "Utah's Dixie", and Dixie it has remained.

Even more bizarre is that matching up with its name of Dixie State, up until 2009 the University's teams were named the "Rebels" which was then changed to the "Red Storm". In 2016, the nickname was changed again to the "Trailblazers".

ONE MASTER'S DEGREE? ONE? This is a serious university? Isn't 41 bachelor's degrees a small number too?

"the university has a 100% acceptance rate" - WTF??? They literally accept anyone?

This is pretty cool though:

"The Trailblazers' mascot is Brooks the Bison," ... "The mascot is named after the first student in the institution's history, Samuel Brooks, who slept on the steps outside what was then St. George Stake Academy to be the first to pay the $10 tuition the next morning. The descended family of Samuel Brooks sat in the stands and was recognized when Brooks first arrived in the stadium."

ONE MASTER'S DEGREE? ONE? This is a serious university? Isn't 41 bachelor's degrees a small number too?

"the university has a 100% acceptance rate" - WTF??? They literally accept anyone?

This is pretty cool though:

"The Trailblazers' mascot is Brooks the Bison," ... "The mascot is named after the first student in the institution's history, Samuel Brooks, who slept on the steps outside what was then St. George Stake Academy to be the first to pay the $10 tuition the next morning. The descended family of Samuel Brooks sat in the stands and was recognized when Brooks first arrived in the stadium."

Yep. Weber State is 100% as well. Utah State and Wyoming isn't far behind at 97% and 96% respectively.

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The moves makes sense for Dixie State since they didn't exactly fit in that well with the Pacific West. This is despite their current home, the Rocky Mountain, being a far better fit.

This saves the WAC for the time being because California Baptist will be about halfway through the process and Bakersfield jumping ship to join the Big West. This is still a ship that has major leaks, so any other moves may tip it over for good.

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Even more bizarre is that matching up with its name of Dixie State, up until 2009 the University's teams were named the "Rebels" which was then changed to the "Red Storm". In 2016, the nickname was changed again to the "Trailblazers".

Red Storm? Red [Noun] is what you're supposed to call yourself when you used to be a Native American-themed team.

Yep. Weber State is 100% as well. Utah State and Wyoming isn't far behind at 97% and 96% respectively.

I’m not sure if it’s a literal 100% acceptance rate or if it’s still true, but when I went to ASU, Grand Canyon University accepted anyone with an Arizona license. I think they even took care of a good chunk of tuition, too. And they were SUPER lax on this one, also. Basically, if you had ever changed planes at Sky Harbor, you were Arizonan enough to get that deal. I almost went there to work on a masters degree after graduating simply because it was damn near free. If not for how much I HATED Arizona and it being so strictly Christian, I would’ve probably wound up there.

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Since the big 5 conferences are really the only ones that always have a good chance at the playoffs and pretty much control everything, why don't they just make "Division 1" just those conferences, and have what's left of current FBS just be their own division?

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Since the big 5 conferences are really the only ones that always have a good chance at the playoffs and pretty much control everything, why don't they just make "Division 1" just those conferences, and have what's left of current FBS just be their own division?

Those five conferences were already given autonomy in 2014. Plus, if they were their own division, they would only play against themselves and more coaches would get fired for being 7-5. It would also cost athletic departments more overall to schedule opponents since everyone's budgets have the same needs.

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Those five conferences were already given autonomy in 2014. Plus, if they were their own division, they would only play against themselves and more coaches would get fired for being 7-5. It would also cost athletic departments more overall to schedule opponents since everyone's budgets have the same needs.

You'd also have a clearer picture of who's good and who's not, because 5 teams aren't 11-1 with multiple 50+ point wins against Dixie State et al.

I don't see anything wrong with a 7-4 team making the playoff if they're playing all big 5 teams. Seems like it would be more competitive for everyone.